While the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes have been administering the COVID-19 vaccine to tribal members and now, on a limited basis, to some of their casino employees the Eastern Pequot Tribe has been struggling to get its elderly members vaccinated.
The Easterns’ chairwoman, Katherine Sebastian Dring, believes it’s another consequence of her tribe’s lack of federal recognition, a status the Mashantuckets and Mohegans have long enjoyed.
“Here we are, a state-recognized tribe with a reservation established in 1683, scientists have said we need to get vaccinated and we have not been acknowledged as an at-risk population,” Sebastian Dring said Friday. “As Native Americans, we are at risk. That’s a scientific fact.”
As a breaking news reporter, I primarily cover crime and courts in southeastern Connecticut, but I also report on politics, health care and social justice issues. In addition to my beat, I am the cohost of the investigative true crime podcast Looking for the Todt Family. I am passionate about in-depth crime coverage and believe in the power of investigative journalism. I am a Connecticut native who returned to my home state to join the team at The Day.
Taylor Hartz
As a breaking news reporter, I primarily cover crime and courts in southeastern Connecticut, but I also report on politics, health care and social justice issues. In addition to my beat, I am the cohost of the investigative true crime podcast Looking for the Todt Family. I am passionate about in-depth crime coverage and believe in the power of investigative journalism. I am a Connecticut native who returned to my home state to join the team at The Day.